Job-Killing Bills Coming Up For Vote

State Director Bob Hallstrom Reports

A series of bills opposed by NFIB have been scheduled for hearing before the Business and Labor Committee this week. Among the bills to be considered are:

Minimum Wage

Legislative Bill 947, introduced by Sen. Steve Lathrop (Omaha), would increase the minimum wage for persons compensated by way of gratuities from $2.13 to $3 per hour for a period of one year, with the minimum wage for such individuals to be increased each year thereafter by the lesser of 95? or the amount necessary for the wage to equal 70 percent of the state’s minimum wage.

Listing Of Employee Salaries And Job Titles

Introduced by Sen. Tayna Cook (Omaha), Legislative Bill 1085 would require Nebraska employers with 50 or more employees to annually make available to all of their employees and the Equal Opportunity Commission a listing of employee salaries, including job titles, gender, age, and years of service with the listing to be made available without any name or other information that would make an employee readily identifiable.

Minimum Wage

Sen. Jeremy Nordquist (Omaha) has introduced Legislative Bill 943, which would increase the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $7.65 an hour in 2015; to $8.35 an hour in 2016; and to $9 an hour in 2017. Members of the Business and Labor Committee need to be contacted immediately to express your opposition to an increase in the state’s minimum wage.

In contacting members of Business and Labor Committee, set forth below, to express your opposition to LB 943, let them know the impact that a minimum-wage increase will have on your business. Perhaps you will have to cut back on hours of current employees, maybe even lay off some workers. Comment on the ripple effect that an increase in the minimum wage would have on the wages of your other employees.

In addition, consider the following arguments in opposition to LB 943:

An increase in the minimum wage would directly impact the state’s smallest businesses, those firms which in today’s economic climate can least afford a substantial hike in mandated employee wages.

Raising the minimum wage hurts small businesses and raises unemployment, especially among younger and lower-skilled workers.

Nebraska should not increase the state’s minimum wage beyond the current federal minimum wage.

NFIB State Director Bob Hallstrom testified in support of Legislative Bill 824 before the Business and Labor Committee, January 27. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh (Omaha), would deny temporary disability benefits to an employee if the employee's employment is terminated for cause following the occurrence of an accident or occupational disease for reasons unrelated to the occurrence of the accident or occupational disease, and the employer would have accommodated the employee's temporary restrictions but for the employee's separation from employment.

The need for LB 824 has resulted from a number of court decisions in which employers have been required to pay temporary total disability benefits to an injured employee whose misconduct results in separation from employment, even when the misconduct was unrelated to the work accident and the employer could have accommodated the employee’s temporary work restrictions.